Zechariah 11

New King James Version

Desolation of Israel

11 Open ^(A)your doors, O Lebanon,
That fire may devour your cedars.
²Wail, O cypress, for the ^(B)cedar has fallen,
Because the mighty trees are ruined.
Wail, O oaks of Bashan,
^(C)For the thick forest has come down.
³There is the sound of wailing ^(D)shepherds!
For their glory is in ruins.
There is the sound of roaring lions!
For the ^[a]pride of the Jordan is in ruins.

Prophecy of the Shepherds

⁴Thus says the Lord my God, “Feed the flock for slaughter, ⁵whose owners slaughter them and ^(E)feel no guilt; those who sell them ^(F)say, ‘Blessed be the Lord, for I am rich’; and their shepherds do ^(G)not pity them. ⁶For I will no longer pity the inhabitants of the land,” says the Lord. “But indeed I will give everyone into his neighbor’s hand and into the hand of his king. They shall ^[b]attack the land, and I will not deliver them from their hand.”

⁷So I fed the flock for slaughter, ^[c]in particular ^(H)the poor of the flock. I took for myself two staffs: the one I called ^[d]Beauty, and the other I called ^[e]Bonds; and I fed the flock. ⁸I ^[f]dismissed the three shepherds ^(I)in one month. My soul loathed them, and their soul also abhorred me. ⁹Then I said, “I will not feed you. ^(J)Let what is dying die, and what is perishing perish. Let those that are left eat each other’s flesh.” ¹⁰And I took my staff, ^[g]Beauty, and cut it in two, that I might break the covenant which I had made with all the peoples. ¹¹So it was broken on that day. Thus ^(K)the^[h] poor of the flock, who were watching me, knew that it was the word of the Lord. ¹²Then I said to them, “If it is ^[i]agreeable to you, give me my wages; and if not, refrain.” So they ^(L)weighed out for my wages thirty pieces of silver.

¹³And the Lord said to me, “Throw it to the ^(M)potter”—that princely price they set on me. So I took the thirty pieces of silver and threw them into the house of the Lord for the potter. ¹⁴Then I cut in two my other staff, ^[j]Bonds, that I might break the brotherhood between Judah and Israel.

¹⁵And the Lord said to me, ^(N)“Next, take for yourself the implements of a foolish shepherd. ¹⁶For indeed I will raise up a shepherd in the land who will not care for those who are cut off, nor seek the young, nor heal those that are broken, nor feed those that still stand. But he will eat the flesh of the fat and tear their hooves in ^(O)pieces.

¹⁷“Woe^(P) to the worthless shepherd,
Who leaves the flock!
A sword shall be against his arm
And against his right eye;
His arm shall completely wither,
And his right eye shall be totally blinded.”